A bit lower than I had hoped for however the smaller heatsink, small wavien collar, and lens imperfections all contributed to lower performance than the original Optofire.
It also seems like a small portion of the lens around the outside (only a millimeter or two) is not receiving light due to the aperture angle of the collar.
A slightly longer focal length lens or larger collar angle would make use of the full diameter of the lens. This wasn’t a problem with the long focal lenth A380 lens.
The A380 lens also was better at focusing, with less aberrations.

Despite this, the advantage of the thic A037 lens is that all the light coming out of the collar is being collected, about 500 lumens all going into the beam.
The result is a very bright and visible beam

Light engine assembly:

Exterior:

Beamshots:

Video in a large room filled with haze:

Once I have the 18650 battery carriers mounted inside I might consider selling this light

The LED is being run at its peak, but the higher the temperature it is at the lower the output.
Usually I try to use larger CPU heatsinks, at least ones with heatpipes to move the heat away from the MCPCB faster.

In this build I had to use a low profile server heatsink and low profile fan to keep it compact.
It’s still better than just a passively cooled flashlight body, but not as good as the BXTS13A I used in my previous builds, and far from as good as something like a NH D15 which would be the best possible scenario.

Maybe I’m still too newbie to understand or I just prefer flooders, but…
what is the point of making such flashlights?
Except for fun.
Too large for short distances. And too focused light.
For a long distance illuminates a small point and you need to use a binoculars to see anything.

Maybe I’m still too newbie to understand or I just prefer flooders, but…
what is the point of making such flashlights?
Except for fun.
Too large for short distances. And too focused light.
For a long distance illuminates a small point and you need to use a binoculars to see anything.

There are actually a small minority of BLF’ers that can use a good thrower like this. For the rest, it’s just a toy. I don’t have any use for a thrower, but I’m definitely impressed by the reach of these things. I’m not a flooder either, though. I prefer a medium size hot spot and a decent amount of corona, with very little spill. Some of my favorite lights are TIR.

—

The Cycle of Goodness: “No one prospers without rendering benefit to others”
- The YKK Philosophy

Maybe I’m still too newbie to understand or I just prefer flooders, but…
what is the point of making such flashlights?
Except for fun.
Too large for short distances. And too focused light.
For a long distance illuminates a small point and you need to use a binoculars to see anything.

Yeah mostly for fun, it’s like a fat laser with a very visible beam that isn’t dangerous to the eye and can’t cause fires.
At 1 or 2km the spot is large enough to light up a house, so even though you can’t see very many details from that far away you can still clearly tell that there is a house, without using binoculars.
Your vision is better than you think, look outside, you can still see stuff at 5, 10, 15km away.